Future of Food BBC2

[Jax]

Just watching it now........looks very interesting and I'd love your views on it afterwards ;)

[Jax]

LOL well I'll take it that nobody else has watched Future of Food (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00m9xjc), which is a shame as I think it was really well made.

Although I think one thing they should have included in programme 2 was more on the feed lots (http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20090426/BUSINESS/904269988/-1/rss02) in America............they never showed the mountains of manure. One at Milford feedlot (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6879097/) was a 10m high mound of 2 million kilos of manure that caught fire, a common occurence as featured in Eric Schlossers book 'Chew on This' (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chew-This-Everything-Dont-About/dp/0141318449).


Programme 3 suggested that the average British food bill rose by 10%, £750 for the year. We're spending half as much on our food bills as we did 30 yrs ago, and that if that's how we want to continue, cheap imports is the only way to go. Big swathes of land in Africa is being bought up by richer countries to grow their food and that GM can not be shunned any longer. Oil rich Qatar is leading the way for land grabs with Kenyan government, so villages and their food sources will disappear for the locals.

By the middle of the century the population will reach 9 billion, world food production will have to double!

Havana, Cuba - imported nearly all of it's food, Russia collapsed and so they had to turn to grow their own, they planted urban farms in the city, and now are 90% self sufficient. Apparently the UK managed to do similar with the 'Dig for Victory' campaign in WW2. But in the 1980's we produced 80% of our food but then moved away to cheaper imports. Last year we imported 3 times as much food and drink as we exported, for self sufficiency we need to eat 40% less or grow 2/3 more.

Out of 500 apple varieties that can be grown in UK, we only eat 1 British apples in 10 apples we eat. But apparently the shopper want apples year round..........and not seasonally! 40% of strawberries are imported. Less than a 1/3 of fruit consumed is home grown in UK. The prob can be overcome by eating seasonally, simple! Obviously some things can't be grown like Bananas and oranges.

Incredible Edible Todmorden (http://www.incredible-edible-todmorden.co.uk/), is a movement to grow food around the town and make themselves self sufficient in 10 years. Unfortunately in the UK 30 people are waiting for each allotment (http://www.allotments-uk.com/).

Food demands are set to double over next 40yrs GM one way, they've been growing and eating GM for 10 years in USA. Mexico banned growing and field testing it, yet has found nearly half the crops have been contaminated by GM genes and have found mutant maize growing there.

Some argue that we should use our existing resources more intelligently, less consumption or less waste, a 1/3 of food that British consumers buy is thrown in the bin, that's £420 of food per household per year. Every second the British collectively throw away;
6 rashers of bacon
8 eggs
14 sausages
81 slices of bread
51 apples
59 potatoes
76 bananas

Food waste has been used to create food in Bedfordshire, the waste goes to an anaerobic digester plant and ultimately ends up as fertiiser for the farm and electricity for the national grid. Whilst using the bins people are noticing how much they waste, and are gradually reducing the amount they buy.

In Wakefield they are trialling aquaponics, fish waste goes to plants that are filtering the water for the fish, and off cuts from plants are put in a wormery which provides food for the fish.

[Jax]

Some further books that I've read that touch on this subject are;

Eric Schlosser - Fast Food Nation (very similar to Chew on This)

Joanna Blythman - Bad Food Britain

Felicity Lawrence - Not on the Label

Elson M Haas - The Staying Healthy Shopper's Guide

[Jax]

I'm just re-watching this as I record it, so here's a statistic I missed from Prog 1 - we imported 20% of our food in Britain 20 years ago, today that has doubled.

And another book that I've read and missed off the list above is Shopped - Joanna Blythman.